RI lawmaker concerned about supervision of parolees, other convicts at downtown Providence location

Friday

Dec 20, 2013 at 5:10 PM

State. Rep. John J. Lombardi says he wants to know more about the types of convicts who will visit the offices on Fountain Street, close to the Providence Public Library, City Hall, the Providence Performing Arts Center and the hub of the Rhode Islan

Mark Reynolds Journal Staff Writer mrkrynlds

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- A state lawmaker has some questions about the Rhode Island Department of Corrections' plan to move its parole and probation offices to a downtown location.

State. Rep. John J. Lombardi says he wants to know more about the types of convicts who will visit the offices on Fountain Street, close to the Providence Public Library, City Hall, the Providence Performing Arts Center and the hub of the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority bus system at Kennedy Plaza.

Will they be sex offenders? Violent criminals? How many will visit the facility at 40 Fountain St.?

Lombardi, D-Providence, wrote the director of the Corrections Department, A.T. Wall II, on Thursday, asking for more information about the plan, which sailed through the State Properties Committee on Tuesday.

The basic plan calls for transferring the supervision of prisoners on parole or probation from the Urban League headquarters at 246 Prairie Ave. to vacant office space, which is the former home of the General Treasurer.

"I have many concerns relative to the moving of the division to the proposed area," Lombardi wrote Wall.

"The decision would have an adverse effect on our business community as well as the residents who live in the neighborhood," says Lombardi's letter, which calls for a proposals process with public meetings and notifications to entities such as the Providence Chamber of Commerce and the Providence Police Department.

"When investing in an area, one must look to the public health, safety and welfare in order to effect a rational decision," Lombardi's letter says.

The lawmaker says he supports an earlier proposal for the supervision of persons on parole or probation at 17 Gordon Ave. Under that proposal, both the Urban League and the probation and parole offices would move to Gordon Avenue.